Regent's Park: Gorillas On The List

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By Newsweek Editors

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Recent visitors to the London Zoo could tell that the venerable tourist attraction in Regent's Park had fallen on lean times: the traditional chimpanzees' tea party had been supplanted by a cow-milking demonstration. The chimps may be losing more than their afternoon tea. Officials announced earlier this month that the financially strapped zoo would probably close by September and that many of its 8,000 animals might have to be killed if they couldn't be placed in other facilities. The news triggered a stampede of anguished protest from British animal lovers. Children and pensioners volunteered to contribute their savings. A male stripper even offered to bare all if the zoo could find a sponsor.

Rising costs and soft revenues are the 163-year-old zoo's principal problem. It needs $23 million to meet short-term maintenance requirements and additional $72 million for modernization. Unlike other famous London attractions, the zoo gets no government subsidy. Admissions are the main source of cash, but attendance has fallen from a 1950s peak of 3 million a year. So far, the government has refused to ante up. But with an election on the horizon the Tory party may be buffaloed into saving the zoo where A.A. Milne once took his own son Christopher Robin to see a bear named Winnie.

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